DE – FISHING
In July WVFF members joined forces with five other conservation agencies and groups to ‘de-fish’ a small section of upper Nason Creek off Hwy. 2. Prior to construction of a bridge and construction of an engineered log jam and a diversion trench to move water into an abandoned wetland, the fish had to be collected and moved out of harms way. Over fifty salmonid fingerlings and an equal number of baby lampreys were electro shocked and collected that day and safely moved outside of the temporary coffer dams to hopefully mature and return to spawn in a few years.
Three Fish Conservation Grants awarded in April of 2022.
Methow Cutthroat Study
Ultra Accurate GPS
Temperature Data Logger System
The club donated $1,000 along with other organizations to help fund a study of the Westslope Cutthroat fishery in the Methow drainage. The last study was in 1997 and an update of data is necessary to move forward with future conservation projects.
WVFF purchased a surveyor quality GPS unit for Cascadia Conservation District, to facilitate more accurate fisheries studies and project mapping.
Wenatchee Trout Unlimited was just awarded funding for a Temperature Data Logging System, It will provide accurate water temperature information as it relates to their ongoing beaver relocation project and the changes in water temperature regarding the construction of beaver dam analogues in the central Washington area.
Lake Lenore Historical and ‘Proper Catch and Release’ Information Kiosk
Fishing Lake Lenore Salute to Enos Bradner – Managing for Quality – How to Release Fish Unharmed – Natural Feeding Habits and flies that work. The costs for this project were split between the WVFF and the Moses Lake Dryside Fly Fishers.
Lake Lenore Project
The Lakes Geological Past – it’s resident Lahontan Cutthroat trout population – and the story of how it all creates a really fine place to fish stillwater.
Working with Wenatchee Trout Unlimited, we provided strong backs to install Beaver Dam Analogues on Potato Creek in hopes that the seasonal water table rises and eventually provides a route for resident Westslope Cutthroat Trout and Steelhead to once again access the Entiat River.
We assisted with water quality testing on the Chiwawa River for four years in conjunction with the Cascade Fisheries Group. These tests insured good water quality for those living downstream of an area where, as part of a nutrient study, tons of natural salmon analogues were spread.
Working with the Fly Fishers International and the Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club, the WVFF contributed $3,000 to the Wild Steelhead Coalition’s purchase of 8 acres of river front property 2.5 miles west of the mouth of the Grand Ronde River. It offers excellent river frontage and access. The coalition turned the title over to the WDFW which now lists the property as permanent public camping and access area.
The Wenatchee Valley Fly Fishers financially assisted a movement to purchase 14 acres of the Peshastin Mill waterfront property, on the Wenatchee River. The property has been signed over to the Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife which is holding it in a public trust for all future generations to enjoy. All with minimal development and 100% free public access to the river.
We donated 46 Temperature Data Loggers to the WDFW Wenatchee Office for placement into local creeks and streams to better understand the effects of fire and overly hot summers on trout habitat. This data is collected three times a year by the WDFW and the data is available to any user of this website at Conservation/Water Temperatures. Special thanks to Fly Fishers International for their matching fund grant and the Icicle Valley Trout Unlimited for donating $1,500 to this project.
Our club donated a small drone and support materials to Wenatchee Trout Unlimited. The equipment will alllow the group to locate and assist with relocated problem beavers as well as check on water conditions resulting from new beaver dams as well as from human made Beaver Dam Analogues (BDA) built around the region. Another photograph in this gallery shows a Cougar caught on a game camera crossing over a BDA.
A five year/$8,000 funding commitment from the WVFF was used in part to purchase two sections of land in the Stemilt Basin slated for conservation work and recreational planning. We also represented all fly fishers during four years of the Stemilt-Squilchuck Recreational Planning meetings. We insured that as the basin was fairly reviewed for future recreational use and the fly fishing only component of Upper Wheeler Lake was maintained.
The WVFF worked long and hard to establish a ‘Fly Fishing Only’ designation for Upper Wheeler Lake. The road only gets you 99% of the way to this subalpine reservoir but the short hike up the hill puts you about 500′ below the Mission Ridge ski area and into a beautiful setting to cast flies.
We donated two Oxygen Sensors to the Ephrata WDFW to assist with their oxygen level monitoring projects in the lakes of Grant County.
The WVFF assisted the WDFW twice with a fin clipping project. A total of 7,500 Brown trout were clipped and released to determine if they could migrate from Upper to Lower Anilon Lake.
$1,000 was donated to the Wenatchee WDFW’s Dry Lake Improvement Project which improved the fishing signage and created a handicapped access ramp. The funds also assisted with the development of a second informational kiosk at Dry Lake, near Manson.
Purchased an Electrode Kit for the Wenatchee office of WDFW. Previously there was only one such unit, within the four county region, for them to use on a variety of projects. This equipment is for use in local waterways to harmlessly catalogue and count fish species and can only make collecting accurate data more efficient for our local fish biologists.
